Chapter 79: Bamboo-Tube Rice and a BBQ Feast

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Bamboo-Tube Rice and a BBQ Feast

Liam walked contentedly towards the cooking area with six tubes of young bamboo cut from the top of the stem in his arms.

In Nirvana’s video, they taught how to make bamboo-tube rice from glutinous rice. Liam had no glutinous rice, only plain rice, so he was cooking plain-rice bamboo-tube rice.

First, the structure of glutinous rice and plain rice is entirely different, so Liam had to work it all out very carefully in order not to ruin the cooking. Glutinous rice has to be soaked for at least six hours, plain rice does not need soaking, but it will need more water.

Second, plain rice swells a great deal, he could not stuff plain rice in to take up 70% of the tube the way glutinous rice does. After washing the rice clean, Liam judged it by eye for a moment, putting plain rice into only half of each bamboo tube.

Next came the water. Plain rice needs a lot of water, he poured water slowly into the tube, shaking it gently so the water went down evenly. Only once the water covered the surface of the rice by about 2 centimetres did he use bamboo leaves to plug the mouth of the tube.

With the glowing coals already there for grilling the meat, Liam laid the rice-filled tubes across them at a slant. The cooking time is about 60 minutes, and during these 60 minutes they have to be turned evenly to avoid one part being done while another is still raw.

When bubbles of water are seen welling out at the mouth of the bamboo leaves, the water is boiling. When the bubbles gradually run dry, the smell of scorched bamboo mingling with the smell of cooked plain rice rising up, you rake the tubes out to rest at the edge of the coal heap for another 15 minutes. This resting step is extremely important for plain rice, so the rice dries off, the grains coming out light and fluffy rather than sodden and sticky.

This heavy work was done for him by the Mason family’s kitchen assistants, Liam needed only to stand to one side reminding them when the tubes needed turning, how to turn them so as not to spill the water out.

While the rice was cooking, Liam also took the chance to put a few sweet potatoes into the coal fire to roast alongside. The sweet potatoes were done before the rice, the fragrance spreading out making everyone around sniff unconsciously.

However there were not many sweet potatoes, so Liam set them aside only for himself, Daniel, Auntie Camila and Isabella. For the others, he promised another day when the sweet potatoes would be harvested.

The group of Alphas built the chicken coop very fast. The sky had only just grown dusky when the house part of the coop was finished.

Liam told them to stop work and carry on tomorrow. As for now, they had to enjoy the first outdoor BBQ feast in this world!

Skewer after skewer of meat was laid on the grill, the fat on the meat running out to drip onto the glowing coals with a sizzling sound. Small flames flared up then died away in an instant, leaving behind that distinctive burnt smell mingled with the fragrance of the meat and the vegetables.

Daniel had brought low-strength liquor besides. Liam was pregnant so he only took one sip, finding it rather good, better even than the expensive wines on the market back on Earth. He clicked his tongue, saying to Nirvana: [Everything connected with eating and drinking has been lost, only the liquor goes on improving by the day. I cannot make any sense of it.]

Nirvana chuckled: [It is not only the liquor though, is it? Anything connected with entertainment, they have preserved it and developed it to a whole new height.]

Liam burst into a laugh, declining to offer an opinion. The grilled meat was done. The finished skewers were taken off and laid on plates. Everyone stood round the table each holding a skewer to bite into, drinking while eating the meat and chatting merrily, every so often running out to turn the skewers over.

The sound of laughter and talk echoed all across the yard.

Daniel smacked his lips in admiration: "I never imagined that thing you call fish sauce would make food so rich in flavour when it is added, completely different from only putting in the other ordinary seasonings."

Liam nodded: "Naturally!"

Daniel could not help being curious: "Did you make this yourself? Could it be developed into an industry?"

Liam was left blank. How was he supposed to answer this? He had no damn idea how to make fish sauce!

Just then Nirvana leapt out to prove its existence: [Host, in my data store there is a recipe for making anchovy fish sauce. But in this world there are no anchovies, so how it gets done still depends entirely on you.]

Liam wrinkled his nose: [Can you not see I already have a great many things to do? Add making fish sauce on top of that and when will my feet ever touch the ground again?]

Nirvana propped up its chin to think, after which it immediately put forward an idea: [The host can give the recipe to Mrs. Hall. Besides being Deputy Director of the Research Institute, Mrs. Hall has only two manors as personal property, so if you let her develop a fish sauce production company it will be more to your advantage later on!]

Liam shook his head: [It cannot be done! Letting her rise to a high post in the Research Institute is already the only concession the Royal family has allowed. Although Alexander does not go into politics, he has developed Mecha manufacturing to the point of crushing every other great family. If my adoptive mother were to develop a business of her own outside as well, there is no telling when I would have to go and collect their corpses!]

Liam had meant to let the matter drop, to say outright that he only had a little of it and be done with it. But after looking over at his sister and Sebastian stuck together in one lump over there, both his eyes lit up.

[Actually, giving it to my adoptive mother to research is not out of the question. But the person founding the enterprise cannot be her or any great family. What if it started from one small independent workshop, supplying the Luxe Morsel restaurant chain exclusively?]

Nirvana followed Liam’s line of sight, understanding at once: [You intend to put Sebastian in charge of this work? But he is only an ordinary person, how is he to stand up to that lot of great families?]

[Who says he cannot stand up to them? The person supplying the recipe is Lady Aurora Coronado, the investors include the Halls, the Cromwells, the Masons, the Martinezes. You tell me, which bastard would dare put a hand in?]

Nirvana was lost for words: [What are you counting the Martinezes in for? Your household is not even ranked in the top million. What is more, you still do not know what his character is like, yet you have already gathered him onto the same tray as your own family!]

Liam gave Nirvana a flat white-eyed look, only then answering Daniel: "At the moment I am far too busy, I cannot draw the time out of anywhere. Let us leave it a while then work it out. Come on, time to eat something new!"

The grilled meat was nearly gone, the rice was done as well. Liam asked Sebastian to help him split the roasted bamboo tubes open. Plain rice comes out far looser and fluffier than glutinous rice, so they could not stand the bamboo tubes upright to peel them open.

Luckily there were dedicated tools here, and Sebastian’s hands were extremely strong besides. He laid the bamboo tube flat on the alloy table, easily splitting off a third of the upper half of the tube and lifting it away. The smell of the rice, fragrant enough to fill the nose, flooded into everyone’s nostrils, so that although their stomachs were already half full they still swallowed unconsciously.

Liam picked up a rice bowl and a wooden scoop to serve himself a bowl of rice, after that he said to everyone: "Whoever wants some, come and get it yourselves."

Having spoken, he hurriedly picked up his chopsticks, scooping a mouthful of rice into his mouth.

The moment it entered his mouth, the light, fluffy yet not in the least parched structure of the plain rice grains knocked his sense of taste flat. Having drunk its fill of the sweet water drawn out of the young bamboo’s body all through the time it was fired over the red flames, every grain of rice was glossy, soft and loose, carrying a pure sweetness utterly new to the palate.

As he chewed more slowly, Liam clearly felt the raw, earthy fragrance of fresh bamboo membrane scorched by the fire, mingled with a faint trace of charcoal smoke at the tip of his tongue. Plain rice roasted in a bamboo tube brings a light, cool, thoroughly wild sensation, completely different from cooking it in an electric rice cooker.

The plainness, the clean blandness of the rice became at this moment the most perfect backdrop of all. It neutralised the greasiness, the rich fattiness of the grilled meat, bringing out the depth of the marinade. A mouthful of soft fluffy rice shot through with the sweetness of the bamboo water, then a bite of grilled meat sizzling and oozing fat, the burst of flavour was so perfect that Liam’s eyes narrowed slightly in satisfaction.

The primal flavour of the mountains and forests seemed to dissolve in his mouth. He could not even be bothered to add a word of assessment, simply picking up another piece of meat outright, shovelling in another large mouthful of rice, the speed of his chewing and swallowing plainly increasing a good deal.

This practical action of Liam’s was the truest description of all. Looking at the way he wolfed it down while still enjoying it utterly, Leonardo’s group along with Isabella also charged forward of their own accord, each one dishing up a bowl of rice for themselves.

The band of stars in the sky grew brighter by the day, the fire in the grill gradually died down as well. The Alphas were already tipping over to left and right, even Daniel was a little light-headed. Liam had no choice but to help him into the room, Benjamin, who had not drunk at all, still needed nine buffaloes and two tigers’ worth of effort to pull his sister off Sebastian, where she was hanging on him demanding a kiss.

Whoever was still sober joined forces to carry the drunks in and dump them inside the house, while the mess outside was handed over to the Robots to clear up.

Luckily they had already unfolded the mobile homes beforehand. The convenience of a mobile home lies in this, that you carry it off whenever you want to carry it off, you set it down wherever you want to set it down. Four mobile homes were enough to house this many people.

Leonardo prised the technician hanging off him away, grumbling: "I told you to drink a little, you had to pour it down, now you call everyone you meet your wife."

The technician had barely been prised off Leonardo before he immediately turned to throw his arms round the Alpha beside him, giggling: "Hic... Wife... soft, soft wife... give me a kiss, come on..."

The Alpha beside him was blind drunk as well, hearing faintly that somebody had said something about a kiss he duly puckered up.

Leonardo: "..."

Leonardo rubbed his forehead with a headache, stepping up to separate these two drunkards, flinging each of them into a room of his own, to avoid any unbearable situation arising. When these two sobered up tomorrow morning and remembered tonight’s business, one way or another they would go flying at each other.

To guarantee the chastity of their lives, from now on he would have to add a rule banning drink to the organization’s regulations!

"Where is my wife? Which one of you has carried my wife off!"

"Huh? Wife? Ah, right... wife... where are you?"

"Boo hoo, you lot... hic... you lot are a pack of heartless bastards..."

"Elia, you wretch! Do not let me set eyes on you again!"

Every manner of howling and weeping rang out inside the house, Leonardo was angry enough to grind his teeth audibly. He tipped his head back to the sky and roared:

"Boss!!! When are you coming back?!! I cannot stand any more of this!!!"